Missouri: Michael Dumas arrested and charged with murdering Sarah Simms, key witness against Dumas in Phillip Anderson murder case
Missouri detectives investigating a homicide early Sunday in Independence as Michael T. Dumas was free on both and is now behind the fatal shooting of Sarah E. Simms.
Police detailed the shooting which occurred shortly after 5:30 a.m. at a house in the 3800 block of South Sterling Avenue in Independence.
Michael Dumas
Dumas, 27, of Pleasant Hill, has now been charged with the second killing of Simms, a key witness in a 2017 investigation. Dumas fired on Simms with a silver-barrelled, sawed-off shotgun wrapped in black electrical tape.
The witness shouted, “Don’t pull it! Don’t pull it!” as both he and Simms held their hands up before Simms was gunned down and the witness fled the scene, being hurt in the gunfire.
Simms was lying on the kitchen floor with a wound to the head, unconscious but breathing. She passed away at the hospital.
He was also charged with first-degree assault in the wounding of man who was also in the home, and two counts of armed criminal action.
These charges came after an 11-hour manhunt in which police sent out public alerts with Dumas’ picture asking for help finding him — warning that he should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.
Police announced that they had taken Dumas into custody shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday.
“Police found shotgun shells at the scene,” a release from the prosecutor said. “The suspect’s vehicle was parked outside and shells similar to the one found at the homicide scene were found near the vehicle.”
Simms was a cooperating witness in a Sept. 29, 2017, killing for which Dumas also was charged.
Dumas had been free since Nov. 4, 2017, after posting a $150,000 bond, according to a spokesman from the prosecutor’s office.
Prosecutors have requested a $750,000 bond for Dumas in the new homicide case.
Dumas and another man were accused in the Sept. 29, 2017 fatal shooting of Phillip J. Anderson, whose body was found in the parking lot of a Quiktrip at U.S. 40 and Sterling Avenue, less than a mile from the scene of Sunday’s shooting.
